# 1928 New South Wales prohibition referendum

A referendum concerning introducing prohibition in New South Wales was put to voters on 1 September 1928.

## Background

Six o'clock closing was introduced during the First World War, partly as an attempt to improve public morality and partly as a war austerity measure. Before this reform, most hotels and public houses in Australia had closed at 11 or 11:30 pm. Support for changing hotel closing times originally came from the temperance movement, which hoped that implementing restrictions on the sale of alcohol would lead eventually to its total prohibition. Although the movement had been active since the 1870s, it had been gaining ground since the 1900s following the introduction of 6 o'clock retail trade closing, first legislated in Western Australia in 1897. The argument made by the temperance movement challenged the grounds for public houses being "kept open while bakers' shops were shut". Prominent groups in this movement were the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Rechabites. Their agitation was augmented with the outbreak of war in 1914 where it was argued that a "well-ordered, self-disciplined and morally upright home front was a precondition for the successful prosecution of the war."
The first state to introduce early closing was South Australia in March 1916 where the rationale was for supporting the war effort. The law had been approved in the previous year in a referendum held in conjunction with the state election. Six o'clock closing was subsequently adopted in New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania in the same year. It was introduced in New Zealand in December 1917. Western Australia adopted a 9 pm closing time, but Queensland retained the old closing times until it introduced 8 o'clock closing in 1923.
Although 6 o'clock closing was introduced as a temporary measure, the government brought in extensions and discussed putting the matter to a referendum. In 1923, however, without testing the matter by a popular vote, the Fuller Nationalist government enacted 6 pm as the closing time.

## The question

The question to be voted on was whether "prohibition, with compensation, shall come into force throughout New South Wales".

## Results

The referendum overwhelmingly rejected the introduction of prohibition.
Result :
| Question | Question | Votes | % |
| Are you in favour of Prohibition with Compensation? | Yes | 357,684 | 28.74 |
| Are you in favour of Prohibition with Compensation? | No | 896,752 | 71.26 |
| Total formal votes | Total formal votes | 1,254,436 | 98.92 |
| Informal votes | Informal votes | 13,683 | 1.08 |
| Turnout | Turnout | 1,268,119 | 89.97 |

## Aftermath

This was the second of 5 referendums concerning the sale of alcohol in New South Wales, 3 of which dealt with the closing hour for licensed premises and clubs while the fifth concerned Sunday trading.
Closing hour referendum results :
| Referendum | 6:00 pm | 7:00 pm | 8:00 pm | 9:00 pm | 10:00 pm | 11:00 pm |
| (2) 1916 Licensed premises closing hour | 62.18% | 0.97% | 3.84% | 32.16% | 0.29% | 0.56% |
| (5) 1947 Licensed premises and clubs closing hour | 62.44% | | | 1.60% | 35.96% | |
| (6) 1954 Licensed premises and clubs closing hour | 49.73% | | | | 50.27% | |